Author: John Thomas Frazier

Daily Office Readings for Saturday of the 3^rd Week in Easter: Year 2

Morning, Psalms 30, 32; Evening, Psalms 42, 43;

Exodus 25:1-22; Colossians 3;1 to 17: Matthew 4:18 to 25:

“Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” (Colossians 3:13)

God, and ourselves are all we have. God never makes mistakes, and we make them all the time. We think, say, and do things that we often regret. We hurt each other, and in doing so, we hurt ourselves. Perhaps the first lesson we ought to learn is to realize when we have offended and how to respond with “I’m sorry.”

Sometimes we are taught in our families to go and tell someone “I’m sorry.”  The trouble is that we didn’t realize we had offended in the first place. Sometimes however our offense was intentional; sometimes it was unintentional.   From our family, this idea of required apologies grows even to the national stage.  I have heard national leaders say that some other country will not be pardoned unless they apologize for some wrong-doing they have done, often many years in the past.  I think if I have to tell you that you have offended me, demanding you to apologize, is a waste of time, mine, and yours. The only time this is not the case is when the offense was not intended to be offensive.  However when explained that it was taken as offensive, the appropriate, “I’m sorry,” is welcomed. Sometimes in my life I have had to reflect on my past behavior and realize I needed to apologize to someone. And when I realized it, I apologized accordingly.

So the words of the letter to the Colossians is worth heeding: “Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

Let us pray and confess our sins against God and our neighbor.

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen. (BCP 79)

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Friday of the 3^rd Week of Easter: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 105:1 to 22; Evening, Psalm 105:23 to 45;

Exodus 24:1 to 18; Colossians 2:8 to 23;  Matthew 4:12 to 17:

He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulon and Naphtali.”  (Matthew 4:13)

I can still remember looking from a boat in 2018, to the coast of Israel, in particular, Capernaum.  This is the first place our Lord Jesus went of his own free will and accord.  He was taken by his parents; to Bethlehem to be born; to Egypt to be saved,  to Nazareth to be raised, to Jerusalem to be dedicated, back to Nazareth, to Jerusalem again at age 12, and even to a wedding in Cana by invitation and always back to Nazareth.  But now, he left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake. I took a picture of Capernaum and Galilee of Israel and was so impressed with it that I made it the representation or icon of this blog page.

It is around Capernaum that our Lord Jesus walked along the shore and said to John and James; and to Andrew and Simon Peter; “follow me.”  Capernaum then was his preaching and teaching area.  Our Lord Jesus bloomed where he planted himself.  We too, in our very transitional world, move around a lot. I think now however we are beginning to see that we can pretty much live wherever we want to because we can reach out, or bring the world to us through our laptops or phones wherever we are.  The stay- at- home; work from home, Corona virus showed us this.  We too can bloom from right where we are.  Our home town can, and should, become our “preaching and teaching area” for the Church and for the sake of the Gospel.

None of us knows where our Capernaum will be.  None of us knows where our lives will end on earth. We must always do the best we can wherever we are today, and let tomorrow take care of itself.  Wherever you are right now, it is your Capernaum! Do the Lord’s work.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord Jesus, as You are the Way, the Truth and the Life, help us to anchor our lives in Your goodness so that wherever we make our home, we will promote and present Your loving Gospel to the whole earth. Help us to do this in our work and in our rest. Amen.

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done” (Genesis 2:1 and 2). So, for this evening and tomorrow day my friends, Shabbat Shalom. 

What is Shabbat? Intro to the Jewish Sabbath – YouTube

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Palestine and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Thursday of the 3^rd Week of Easter: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 37:1 to 18; Evening, Psalm 37:19 to 42;

Exodus 20:1 to 21; Colossians 1:24 to 2:7;  Matthew 4:1 to 11:

(Psalm 37: 3 to 7)  I really like these verses.  Let’s look at them individually.

 3 “Put your trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and feed on its riches.”

As I have mentioned before, “Trust” is a better word than “believe.”  We must trust in God and know that God is Good, all the time.  Also, God has given us this good earth with all that we need to sustain ourselves. 

4 “Take delight in the Lord, and he shall give you your heart’s desire.” 

What our heart desires often changes as we mature.  Fancy cars and clothes no longer interest me.  Now I desire truth and love and good friends and a faithful worship community. 

5 “Commit your way to the Lord and put your trust in him, and he will bring it to pass.” 

So, again, the word trust comes into play.  But let us not trust human concepts.  But rather, let us trust in God in general to make things the way God wants them to be, in God’s own way. 

6 “He will make your righteousness as clear as the light and your just dealing as the noonday.”

What is good and right will hold up in the light. Our call is to let go and let God.

7 “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” 

So we are wanting things done, and done now!  We have a hard time “waiting” for the Lord. We need to take a metaphorical knee, and wait for the Lord. God works in God’s time, not ours.

Let us pray:

Oh God of all that is, we are Yours. Help us Dear God to be delighted and committed to trusting in Your Goodness always and to be patient in receiving it, knowing that You are caring for us through all of our developing times; Amen.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Wednesday of the 3^rd Week of Easter: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 38; Evening, Psalm 119:25 to 48;

Exodus 19:16 to 25;  Colossians 1:15 to 23;  Matthew 3:13 to 17:

 “O Lord, do not forsake me; be not far from me, O my God.” Psalm 38

The whole of Psalm 38 is but doom and gloom. But near the end the speaker makes his request to God; to not be forsaken, and to be near him. The Psalmist speaks of enemies and his own body losing its strength. He speaks of his enemies tormenting him. But even in the midst of all this, he hopes in the Lord. He says, “for in you, O Lord, have I fixed my hope; you will answer me, O Lord my God.” 

It is amazing how God will soothe us in times of stress when we call on God.  Often, God acts by changing our attitudes about how we interpret our experiences. The same horror can happen to two different people but one seems to adjust with the help of the Lord while the other may drift into a state of irreversible anguish and distress.  In life, or even in death, we must never, never, never give up on God helping us. We count on God, in this life and in the next.

Let us pray:

O most Holy God, the Author of love and life, You love us more than we can imagine or understand, be with each of us in Your sustaining Presence, especially in our times of stress and doubt; that, being implanted with Your grace we might work through all adversities and be focused again on a path that leads to you. In your most holy Name we pray; Amen.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Tuesday of the 3^rd Week of Easter: Year 2

Morning, Psalms 26 and 28; Evening, Psalms 36 and 39;  

Exodus 19:1 to 16; Colossians 1:1 to 14; Matthew 3:7 to 12:

“Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”  (Matthew 3:9)

Abraham is a very significant Father of Faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims.  But what is significant about Abraham is not his genetic code, his biology, his DNA.  No, what is important about Abraham is his faith. He believed in God, and for his faith, “it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.” (James 2:23)

The significance of Abraham is not something genetic that is passed on to the next generation, not even to Isaac or Jacob.  They, like Abraham had to meet God for themselves and be tested by life. So none of us, not Jew, not Christian, not Muslim, can claim a direct biological heritage from Abraham as for as God is concerned. And, even if someone did show close DNA to a people supposed to be of Abrahamic lineage, it matters not.  It is not the biology that matters; it is the faith of Abraham that matters.  So, like John the Baptist says, “God can raise children to Abraham from the stones of the earth.”

It makes no difference who we are, we can choose to be children to Abraham, not by investigating our ancestry, but only by believing. To be raised as children to Abraham we must choose to believe and hold God more dear to us than our own children as did Abraham himself. As I have said before, I now say again, “Trust” especially in God, is a better translation of the word used for “believe.” Trust God more than family, more that government, more than so called authority figures, more than human professions like many doctors and lawyers and even some clergy. The only exception I will make to this are doctors and lawyers and clergy who pray.  Faith means everything.

Let us pray:                                                                                

 “O God, whose wonderful deeds of old shine forth even to our own day, you once delivered by the power of your mighty arm your chosen people from slavery under Pharaoh, to be a sign for us of the salvation of all nations by the water of Baptism: Grant that all the peoples of the earth may be numbered among the offspring of Abraham, and rejoice in the inheritance of Israel; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (BCP 289)

Today we remember Peter Williams Cassey and Anna Besant Cassey who have a North Carolina connection and are an inspiration for many.  They can be found at Peter Williams Cassey & Annie Besant Cassey (satucket.com).

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Monday of the 3^rd Week of Easter: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 25; Evening, Psalm 9 and 15; 

Exodus 18:13-27;  1^st Peter 5:1 to 14;  Matthew 3:1-6:

“Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; remember me according to your love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.” (Psalm 25: 6)

This is an interesting suggestion.  The Psalmist is asking God to not see the sins of the Psalmist but rather to be judged by the love of God and the goodness of God.

I share this sentiment with the Psalmist.  I am a sinner.  I have erred and strayed from God’s ways on occasions.  I am in real need of a loving and merciful God.  I need a God whose mercy outweighs my wrongs. I need a God whose love makes me a better person, in spite of myself. 

And then, living into God’s love, I will do my best to be a new and much better person.  Like many, I am a work in progress.  But also like many, I depend on God’s help and love to work in me, making me who God wants me to be understanding that God will gift me with what my community needs.  And in the end, how do we want to be remembered?  We want to be remembered according to God’s love and for the sake of God’s goodness.

I love these mornings when I come to this laptop and ponder the spiritual presence of God first thing in the morning.  I know that each day brings a challenge and some enlightenment. I just pray that I let God do the work in me and that I just settle down and watch what happens, yes, even if for a moment it’s unpleasant.  “Remember me according to your love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.”

Let us pray:

Dear Lord God, You gifted us with free will and we often use it in ways that go against your plan for us. Forgive us Dear Lord through your loving-kindness and renew a right spirit within us so that we will think, say, do and act in accordance with Your plan for all humanity. In Your most Holy Name, Amen.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Gospel Reading for the 3^rd Sunday of Easter: Year B

Luke 24: 36 to 48

“Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45)

On this last night with his followers, our Lord Jesus did at least a couple of amazing things, in this Gospel according to Luke. The resurrected Jesus ate food. For me, this means he was not just spirit, a real body needs food. What does this mean for us? 

Just as informative, and perhaps more important, while Jesus received food, he opened their minds to clear understanding of scripture. A real spirit needs understanding.

I am not preaching today; but if I were, I would preach on this wonderful exchange of last Resurrection Day gifts wherein we, not Jesus, were the recipients and benefiters of the greater part.  While Jesus gets something to eat, we get the knowledge of knowing that we will have real bodies in our resurrection, and we receive the uncluttered understanding of God’s love for us without the human bias in the Old and New Testaments. It’s a Win – Win for us. Thank You Lord Jesus.

Let us pray:

Oh Lord Jesus, the giver of all true understanding, we of today, also have clouded minds as we read and listen to scripture.  We are troubled by our own biases and some of the ulterior motives of the scriptural writers themselves. But we believe scripture contains all that is necessary for salvation, while at the same time, knowing that not everything in it is necessary for salvation. Dear Lord Jesus open our minds also that we too will understand the scriptures more fully and are better enabled to say and do those things that are pleasing in your sight. Amen.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Saturday of the 2^nd Week of Easter: Year 2

Morning, Psalms 20 and 21; Evening, Psalms 110:1-5(6-7) and Psalms 116 and 117;

 Exodus 17:1 to 16; 1^st Peter 4:7 to 19; John 16:16 to 33:

“When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world.”  (John 16: 21)

Perhaps labor pain is the one pain that Jesus did not actually experience but it doesn’t take away from the point he is making, and that is that we go through some discomfort that brings about more than just relief, it brings newness of life and great pleasure. 

The book of Ecclesiastes seems to me to have as its running theme that “all is vanity.”  This suggests to me that perhaps our whole life is but the off-and-on-again labor of love until we finally come into new life as a heavenly being. As a dedicated believer and a person of prayer, my default, or go-to, position is the spiritual realm. Armed with the understanding that I will not live forever, it is through my spiritual self that I believe is my eternal path. 

So, as St. Peter says in our readings for today:

“The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”  (1 Peter 4: 7 – 11)

Let us pray:

Dear Lord God, Creator and Sustainer of all life, please help us to know and understand the difficult challenges we must undertake to reach real and everlasting joy. Strengthen our patience in suffering when it is a part of your plan for us in order that we will fully appreciate eternal joy. Amen.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Reading for Friday of the 2^nd Week of Easter: Year 2

Morning, Psalms 16 and 17; Evening, Psalms 134 and 135;

Exodus 16:23 to 36; 1^st Peter 3:13 to 4:6; John 16:1 to 15:

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7)

I used to wonder why people in the Superman comic book series, especially Lois Lane, didn’t realize that if she never saw Clark Kent and Superman at the same time, they might be the same person! It is amazing what a business suit and a pair of glasses will hide. 

Jesus says “if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” It sounds like a phone booth transformation to me.   So, they are one and the same perhaps. I just feel like Jesus is God’s way of really knowing what it is like to be one of us.  In Christ Jesus, God experiences our joy, pain, sorrow, abuse, tyranny, foods, relationships, work, play and on and on. There is no existence or experience in human life that God has not experienced personally in the person of Jesus except for maybe giving birth. Therefore, God knows all, and every kind of our delights and our troubles.  As the old hymn goes, “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, Nobody knows but Jesus.”

Our Advocate, sent by our Lord Jesus, can best be summed up in the words of the Preacher to the Hebrews as he writes, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin;” (Hebrews 4:15).  I think it is very important to believe in, and hope for, eternal life. Without the expected accountability and judgment to come, and the possibility of life everlasting, where is the governance of our conduct now, in this life? We need to learn this message now and improve ourselves daily.

Let us pray:

Oh Holy Lord Christ, as you have sent us Your Holy Spirit to be our Advocate in this life, so open each of our minds to see and behave more faithfully each day until that day we come to you. Amen.

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done” (Genesis 2:1 and 2). So, for this evening and tomorrow day my friends, Shabbat Shalom. 

What is Shabbat? Intro to the Jewish Sabbath – YouTube

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Palestine and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Thursday of the 2^nd Week of Easter: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 18:1 to 20; Evening, Psalm 18: 21 to 50;

Exodus 16:10-22; 1^st Peter 2:11 to 25; John 15:12 to 27

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15: 12)

I really like this “John” rendition of the love commandment better than the ones in the Synoptic Gospel accounts where it is said, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”  The presupposition is that you love yourself. I have met people who do not love themselves. How then can they be expected to love others? 

I am not trying to promote narcissism here but a great many people need to know that they are loved by God, and to suggest that God can’t act in them is not saying they are not good enough, but that God, in all God’s unlimited ability, they feel that God is not able to act in them. Balderdash! God can, and will, use any person to do God’s will.  We are definitely commanded to love ourselves as part of the commandment to love. But just in case we don’t get it, St. John records our Lord Jesus as saying love “one another” (which includes yourself), as I have loved you. Jesus says, “As I have loved you.”  And remember, Jesus loved you all the way to the cross. Every human being is so worthy, and so loved.  Thank you Lord Jesus.

Today our Anglican Communion remembers George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop and missionary (1878). He was a fine example of extending love to others different than himself. The article also shows God working good through “clerical errors.”

This can be found at http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/GA_Selwyn.htm

Let us pray:

O Lord God, who showed us how to love one another through Your time with us in our Lord Jesus Christ, please help us to tear down whatever hinders our affection for one another, be it language, culture, nationality, color of skin or whatever. Continue teaching us even now, through one another, to love one another,  as You love us. Amen.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John